Petefls



(No Model.)

0. J. pwEN. FRAME FOR WRITING SLATES.

Patented Dec. 6, 1 887.

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N4 PETERS, Photo-Lithographer, Waslfingmn. D. C.

i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OWEN JONES OWEN, OF BLAENAU FESTINIOG, COUNTY'OF MERIONETH, WALES, ASSIGNOR OF ON E-HALF TO WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON,

OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

FRAME FOR WRlTlNG-SLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 374,554, dated December 6, 1887. Application filed March 2, 1887. Serial No. 229,398. (No model.) Patented in England April 10, 1884, No. 6,216.

ordinary writing-slate are the corners of the frame. To strengthen these various plans have been tried. For instance corner-pieces, of metal, leather, and other materials have been added outside. False tenons of metal have been sunk in, and the entire slate has been bound round with wire. The last mentioned plan is perhaps the strongest of the whole, but is inoperative, owing to the habit children have of prizing the wire out and even using itas a handle to carry theslate by.

Now, my invention is designed to obtain all the advantages of a wire binding and of a hidden metallic false tenon without the disadvantages of either.

My plairis best described by aid of the ac- 33 companying drawings; in which- Figure 1 shows a plan of slate and frame partly in section, and Fig. 2 a transverse section ofsame. p

In the drawings, A is the slate; B, frame;

35 0, deep groove all round same, say one-fourth inch deep; D, wire sunk in the bottom of the groove, strained tight all round the frame, and the ends forced into holes E E. In the drawings this wire is shown rather too large, and

the holes E E consequently too shallow. The

wire is preferably about three thirty-seconds of an inch in diameter, and the holes E E, to fit same, are perpendicular to the lines of the frame, or, if anything, slightly oblique, so

5 as to make the angle to which the wire is bent slightly less than twenty degrees; F, a strip preferably of the same material as the slateframe, glued into the said groove before finishing the frame. This being just the width of the groove, and forced in while smeared with glue, remains a fixture; when planed off is hardly distinguishable from the body of the frame, and offers no temptation to the children to pick it out-in any case a most difficult task. It hides the wire completely, and prevents the latter from either rusting by expos ure, coming out, or disfiguring or discoloring theslate-frame. By this means all necessity for riveting is avoided, and the frame is so strongly bound together that it is extremely difficult to break. V

It will be obvious that while the above-described arrangement of wire is found the most convenient of any, other forms of wire could be used. Thus fine wire protected by coating or otherwise, or even fine string or other: line can be tightly wound round and round the slate in the groove and then covered with the strip F or other covering, or a singlestrand wire, with its ends firmly secured together, could be used; but I claim these variations as mere mechanical substitutes of my preferred plan.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination of the frame B, wire D round all the corners, deep groove 0, and the covering-strip F, formed of wood and standing flush with the contiguous parts of the frame, substantially as described.

2. The wire D, passing round all four corners of the slate in a'deep groove, with its ends secured in holes E, and having a coveringstrip, F, in the groove, whereby the ends are prevented from coming out of holes E, and are firmly held, thus binding the whole slate together.

' In a slate-frame, the combination of the covering-strip F, formed of similar material to the body of the frame and securely glued into the slate-frame, with a binding device, D, hid by the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribingwitnesses.

OWEN JONES OWEN.

Witnesses:

WM. P. THOMPSON, J OSEPH J. BoYDEN. 

